News

Dairy farmers boil over at coffee shops

Farmers have been staging protests to demand they are paid a fair price for milk (John Grossick)

Britain's biggest coffee chains are facing demands to pay a fair price for
milk after it emerged that only a fraction of the cost of a typical latte
goes to farmers.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU), which successfully campaigned for
supermarkets and dairies to raise milk prices this month, is now taking its
fight to chains such as Starbucks, Caffè Nero and Pret A Manger amid
concerns consumers are unaware of the true cost of their daily coffee.

A medium (grande) latte in Starbucks costs £2.50 and contains about half a
pint of semi-skimmed milk before it is steamed. This costs farmers about 9p
to produce, but they receive only 7.5p, says the NFU.

Coffee chains use an estimated 615m pints of milk a year — almost as much as a
small supermarket group — so farmers could be losing about £18m a year from
their failure to pay a fair price.